


The Last and the First

by f0rt1ss1m0



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Detailed examination of gem hierarchies, F/F, Fluff, Forbidden Love, Hurt/Comfort, Oneshot, Romance, star-crossed lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-15 18:53:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13037301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/f0rt1ss1m0/pseuds/f0rt1ss1m0
Summary: Black Zircon is flawless, and Coco Brown is worth more in pieces. But that's what they're told to say.A portrait of two gems, their flaws, and how they live.





	The Last and the First

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [De Facto](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11065119) by [f0rt1ss1m0](https://archiveofourown.org/users/f0rt1ss1m0/pseuds/f0rt1ss1m0). 



> loosely tied to the timeline of De Facto. this precedes it by about ten years. but you dont have to read both by any means, just enjoy this self indulgent OC garbage
> 
> also i cant manage to embed an image so heres a link to the cover art http://imgur.com/woWrANb

It was an unspoken rule — when Black Zircon wanted something, she got it.

She was the second most perfect zircon on the surface of Homeworld. A silver tongue to go with her brilliant luster; a wisdom deep as the shadows within the coveted black gem in the small of her back. Almost the most perfect, and second only to White Diamond’s very own flawless Matura Zircon, but Matura didn’t waste her spare time in the cubby complex where the other zircons lived. It was inferred that, whenever Matura did return, the same rule of reverence would apply to her. It was just that she normally did not return.

But Black Zircon did, after every single trial, too, so it became a hard rule to forget.

There was a sort of schedule to it. Usually, when a zircon was out of court, she would retire to one of two places in the living complex — her office cubby, if she had extra work to do, or the cubby Common, if she was especially bored. The Common was, ironic to the name, usually the less common choice. A good zircon was never idle. But whenever Black Zircon returned, you would normally know, because you would hear the feet stampeding from cubbies to the Common; zircons new and old would be conversing quickly about the limited details of the case that had been released online; you might see a fight or two as a devoted fan of Black got in fisticuffs with a devoted fan of her opponent. Inevitably, someone was gambling over whether or not Black would get knocked off her high horse today.

And you, too, would rush to the Common, where off-duty zircons gathered in great throngs around three tall scoreboards on the north wall. There had once been beautiful, thirty-foot windows where the scoreboards were, allowing a beautiful view of the Homeworld skyline, but it had long been decided by the zircons that they valued competition before aestheticism.

The scoreboards were a glimpse into where the action happened. Facet and cut numbers lined the left side of the boards, ranked by their win-to-lose ratio. The more cases a zircon won, the higher her number and picture sat on the board.

For the past three thousand years, the same two zircons had occupied the top spots of White Diamond’s scoreboard, 1A1A-1AB and 1A1B-6CC. Matura and Black, respectively. Matura’s win-to-lose ratio was 72:1. Black’s was 98:1. If Matura was there, she would argue that the ratios provided no frame of reference to the weight of the case. Black was not a Diamond’s zircon; she was a dual-service floater who often picked up circuit-level misdemeanors and petty crimes, and that she really wasn’t so great in high court cases. Matura also never chose to mention that, when Black Zircon DID take on a high court case, that she always won those, too.

Currently, both Matura and Black Zircon had red dots next to their numbers — in court. And with each other, fulfilling the rivalry of the millenium. As soon as they disappeared, the numbers would change to reflect the winner. On the floor of the Common, about thirty off-duty zircons milled, chatted, and waited for the dots to disappear. One group of five gamblers sat in a circle, shuffling monetary credit pieces in between each other.

Starlite Blue Zircon 1D7B-7EA and Hyacinth Yellow Zircon 1D7B-7AN leaned against the wall of the Common, an array of blue and yellow screens spread out before them. Every few minutes, within a couple seconds of each other, they would glance up at the scoreboard.

“I hate working out here,” said Yellow every so often. “If I hear another ten-year-old gemling say that Black must be the better zircon just because she has a bigger number, I am going to jump out of a window.”

Blue raised an eyebrow. Secretly, she thought to herself that Yellow was wrong and that Black WAS actually better; it was said that she emerged at the same time as Blue Diamond herself, and from the same chunk of rock as well, so she possessed the same perfection. But she chose not to address that directly. “There’s nothing wrong with your office cubby.”

“Well, if I went back in there, I wouldn’t be able to see the scoreboard, would I?” Yellow rolled her eyes.

“If you actually hated being in the Common so much, you wouldn’t care about the scoreboard, would you?” asked Blue. “And you’d be working in your cubby, rather than out here trying to pick a fight with me?”

Yellow opened her mouth, then closed it. Blue nodded and returned to her screens.

“That’s what I thought.”

A gasp went up around the Common, and Blue and Yellow looked up. The scoreboard flickered and changed...but when it reset, Matura’s and Black’s scores were still the same. The board had instead changed for a purple and an orange zircon in the sixtieth and seventy-third places. “Aww,” groaned thirty zircons all at once. When the warp pad in the center of the Common lit and warped in two zircons, barely anyone looked over.

Then one of the zircons started yelling.

“ _WHERE IS SHE?!”_

It was the orange zircon, her face flushed down to her collar and practically frothing at the mouth. Trembling with rage, she stomped down the warp pad and into the crowd, which scrambled out of her way. “That scratched little CLOD!” Orange seethed, whipping around as if she would catch her victim hiding just over her shoulder. “WHERE IS SHE?”

“Not this again,” Blue murmured. Yellow didn’t reply, just stood and strode to Orange.

“Calm your cobbles, 8OJ,” said Yellow, perhaps not as tactfully as she could have. “You can use coherent words, I know you can. Who is ‘she’, and what did she do?”

“She messed up my files! I had burden of proof and one of the audio clips was missing; I LOST because it wasn’t there! I’m SEVENTY-THIRD now! And it’s HER fault!”

By now, almost every zircon in the room, including Yellow, knew who this was about. But Yellow still took the time to place her hand on Orange’s shoulder and ask patiently, “Who are you talking about?”

“HER!” Orange snapped, pointing past Yellow. “The defective!”

Instantly, all eyes were on “her” — a tiny brown zircon with a gem on her right hip, cowering behind a honey yellow zircon. Coco. The failed Starlite. Just like most of the blue zircons, Coco had emerged as a very normal brown zircon and underwent a special heat treatment to refine her skills for defense. But for whatever reason, no matter how long or hot Coco’s young gem was treated, she would not turn blue. When the Kindergarteners finally gave up on the procedure, her gem had been damaged. She was half her intended height and chubby as a ruby. A disgrace. Unfit to be seen in court. So the zircons kept her here like a lowly pearl, making her hold their files and arrange their cases.

Or, in this case, fail to arrange them.

Someone pushed Coco forward and she stumbled, wringing her hands. Her loose white curls — she had never been allowed to wear a headscarf — fell in her wide, wet eyes. Grimacing, Yellow kept her grip tight on Orange’s shoulder, aware of the tension there and the very real danger of Orange making things physical.

“We can investigate the matter after you calm down,” said Yellow carefully. “Coco, apologize.”

“I don’t want an apology,” Orange snarled. “This is the THIRD time she’s messed up my evidence and I’ve had ENOUGH!”

“Now wait just a second,” Blue Zircon cut in, standing straight. Normally she preferred not to get involved in Orange’s squabbles, but this was a little too much. “Who was in charge of reviewing the evidence after she finished?”

“SHE was! Don’t you understand that I was BUSY?! That’s why I asked for her help in the first place, but why did I even ask? She had ONE JOB and she didn’t even do it — ”

“ ‘Proper Execution of Law, Chapter 7, Section F, Line 5784’,” Blue read off a screen, which she had pulled up during Orange’s rant. “ ‘When assisted by a paralegal, a zircon must not rely on her to include all necessary information without proper briefing. It is the responsibility of the zircon to ensure that her argument is properly ordered and complete.’ ”

Blue pushed her monocle up her nose pointedly. A few of the bystanders began to giggle. “Well then,” Yellow said, suppressing a smile. Orange’s light tangerine face was now a deep, vivid sunburnt.

Then her eyes landed on Coco, and her face went scarlet.

“She’s SMILING!” Orange all but screamed. “You insolent little brat, I’ll tear you apart — ”

Before anyone could move, she wrestled out of Yellow’s grip, grabbed Coco by the collar, and yanked her clear off the ground. If she had been smiling at all before, it was gone now; she was speechless and seemed on the verge of tears. Some zircons halfheartedly told Orange to stop. The rest just stared in morbid curiosity, watching it happen. Blue and Yellow were frozen, hands locked over their mouths like witnesses of a terrible accident. And little Coco didn’t even fight as Orange continued to rage, hurling swears and spittle at her face. It just...happened.

And then, behind them, there was a brief flash of light. Someone gasped.

The scoreboards had changed. The red dots had disappeared from beside Black Zircon’s and Matura White’s names, replaced by green dots. Off-duty. The ratios were different too — 71:1 for Matura, and 99:1 for Black. Another win for Black Zircon.

A split second after the room realized what they were seeing, the warp pad lit up.

The legend herself appeared in a flash, her long, draping headscarf and coattails whirling behind her. She stood a handspan taller than most zircons, and taller still with her shiny, heeled boots. As the warp glow dissipated, Black Zircon raised her chin to regard the room, her eyes and expression hidden by her shining silver visor. Rose Zircon swooned. Nobody was around to catch her, and she thudded on the floor.

As the circle of gamblers subtly passed their money around, Black Zircon’s gaze seemed to settle on the scuffle just in front of her.

Her mouth open in a gape, Orange dropped Coco and stood ramrod-straight. “B — Bl — Your Clarity!” Orange spluttered, saluting. In her lead, the rest of the lower-court zircons snapped into salutes and parted into a path. Slowly, Black Zircon stepped down from the warp pad and came face-to-face with Orange. For a second, she appeared to cast a glance to Coco, still trembling on the floor.

“Is there a game going on?” asked Black suddenly.

Orange’s brow furrowed. “A...a what?”

“A game,” Black repeated, “as in, are you playing a game? Where you throw a puny off-color across the room, and someone has to catch her?”

“I — no! It’s really not like that, I didn’t mean — ”

“Did you just catch her? Was it your turn to throw? Because I think you dropped her. And if I understand the game correctly, that means you lose a point.”

“Your clarity, she sabotaged my case, I was just trying to — HURK!”

Without hesitating, Black Zircon grabbed Orange by the cravat — just as Orange had just done with Coco — and dragged her up just enough that only her toes brushed the floor. Wide-eyed, Orange scrambled at her collar, but Black’s grip was like an iron vise.

“If she sabotaged anything, the administration will take care of her,” said Black calmly. “But discipline is not your job. You are not to throw or drop our paralegals.”

“Y...yes, Your Clarity.”

“Now apologize to her.”

“I’m, um, sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Coco barely whispered. Almost no one heard it.

“Very well,” said Black, lifting Orange a little higher, “then can we agree to drop it?”

Orange gulped. “Yes.”

“Good. Now, how did your zircon-throwing game work…? Ah, nevermind. I can’t remember. Speaking of dropping things…let’s make up a new rule — you drop an off-color, I drop you. The rule is valid starting now.”

At “now”, Black opened her fist and let Orange go, sending her to the floor. But Orange didn’t wait around to be laughed at; she scrambled to her feet and tore out of the Common as fast as her awkward, gangly legs would allow. Some of the other zircons snickered. Most just stared wide-eyed, still frozen in diamond salutes. Wiping her hands on her pants, Black regarded them with a frown.

“And what do you all think you’re doing? If you have work, you should be in your cubbies. Go!”

The majority of the zircons scurried off. Some hung back to congratulate Black on her win; the gamblers returned to their circle to divide up the winnings. Only once most of the crowd had disbanded did Coco push herself to her feet again, clumsily adjusting her unraveled cravat.

“Off-color,” said Black Zircon coolly. Coco jumped to attention.

“Thank you, Your Clarity, I don’t know how I can repay you…”

For a second, Coco knew that Black was looking her in the eye — she had felt it many times before. Her shoulders relaxed, even though she hadn’t noticed they were tensed. Biting her lower lip, Black turned away, pulled a silver diamond screen from her visor, and then took off in a brisk stride that Coco had to jog to keep up with.

“You can start by shutting up,” said Black. “I hope you’re not busy with being pushed around by circuit court zircons.”

“No, um, I, I had to polish the bannister, but, um, that can wait.”

“Good. I have another very important case for you to transcribe. I do not have time for errors like whatever you did to that graceless orange zircon.”

Something unspeakable rose to Coco’s lips, but she shoved it back down, tearing her eyes away from Black’s face. Her gaze instead lingered on Black’s gem, set just at Coco’s eye level in the bared small of her back. She knew she'd seen and touched that beautiful dark gemstone too many times to be this entranced with it, but its allure was intoxicating. And it wasn’t JUST perfect. Sometimes she felt like she was the only one who knew that.

Black stopped suddenly, causing Coco to bump into her leg. Blast it. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time that Black had called her into her office cubby for help, so Coco definitely knew where it was, but sometimes she just got so wrapped up in the moment that she didn’t pay attention. Black gave her a look that Coco could feel even through the opaque visor.

“Don’t touch me,” said Black.

“Yes, Your Clarity,” replied Coco, bowing her head. Then Black opened the door, Coco followed her in, and the door slammed behind them.

— But it was always as if, Coco thought, Black’s office was a pocket of an alternate world.

Reality shifted. The lights hadn’t even had the time to turn on before Black Zircon swept Coco up in her arms. The hug was tight, almost desperate, and Coco was lifted off the ground for the second time that day, but she found that she didn’t mind this time. Exhaling shakily, she buried her face in Black’s shoulder and the loose, supple folds of her headscarf. Sometimes she thought that the only place she felt truly safe was in this office, in Black’s arms, where no one could touch her except the one she knew she loved with all her gem.

When she was here with Black, there was only one thing she wished for — that one day, they would not have to hide anymore.

“Oh, stars,” Black murmured. “I’m so sorry, Coco, are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m fine, I’m fine…”

“I was trying to finish the trial fast…I just had this terrible feeling…”

“It’s okay. It happens.”

For a second, there was quiet. Still holding her tightly, Black carried her to the small, hard sofa in the corner and set her down. Coco could feel the reply coming; this was not a new argument.

“No. You’re not fine, and it doesn’t just HAPPEN,” Black countered. Kneeling in front of Coco, she dismissed her visor in a shimmer of light, revealing two big dark eyes brimming with tears. “I’m worried for you. When I’m in court, all I can think about is how they’re treating you here.”

“Black. It’s fine. Really.” Coco caressed her soft grey cheek. “Let’s just celebrate your victory, okay?”

“No. Not okay,” said Black. “I love you, Coco. I hope you understand that.”

She was trying to be serious and Coco knew it, but she couldn’t help but laugh a little. “I know you do,” she said. “How long have we been together?”

“Nineteen centuries. Almost two millennia.”

“And in all that time, how much of it have you spent pitying me?”

“It’s a lot,” Black admitted.

“I know.” Coco pressed a smile. “But look. Worrying won’t change anything for me, and it doesn’t benefit anything for you. When you’re at work, focus on work.”

“It’s not worth doing if this is all we get out of it.” Black squeezed her eyes shut and hugged her again. “I pretend that I’m fighting for justice, and then I come home to see this happening to you. And I can’t even do anything about it except scare cloddy orange zircons.”

Coco kissed her cheek. “Which is more than I could ever ask for.”

“But it’s less than you deserve!” Black protested. “I feel like you’re in need, and I’m doing everything wrong in trying to help. And NOW I’m burdening you with my privileged self-pity.”

She was getting worked up in a way that few gems ever saw, in a way that made her eyes dart around and caused her normally level voice to hitch and crack. And when she stopped for a breath, Coco slipped her hand under Black’s chin and kissed her lips just as tenderly as the first time, and the second, and the hundreds between those and this, with unconditional love.

When they pulled back, they were quiet for a very long time.

“Thank you,” whispered Black Zircon. “For the kiss. And for being patient with me.”

Coco just squeezed her hand, then kissed the back of it. Compared to Coco’s calloused, stubby fingers and palms, Black’s slender hands were like the finest of silk.

“Did she hurt you?” asked Black.

“No.”

“Did...I hurt you?” she asked. Coco frowned.

“When would you have hurt me?”

“When I was insulting you out there. I feel like I went overboard today.”

“No,” said Coco, but then hesitated and changed her answer. “Well…a little. Every time you do that, there’s a split second where I worry that maybe I did do something wrong and now you really hate me.”

Black bit her lower lip. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. The good part is, you’re a really good actor. Nobody suspects a thing.”

She just looked down at Coco’s hands, entwined with her own. Then she stood and kissed Coco again. Coco’s hands slipped into the small of her back, brushing the gem there. Nobody except Coco knew it, much less dared to think it, but Black’s gem was not perfect at all; the once-sharp corners were just slightly weathered from age. You couldn’t see it. But Coco could feel it, and she thought it was kind of poetic like that.

They ended up just as they normally did, reclining in the couch with Coco in Black’s lap, leaning against her chest as Black held her close from behind. Reaching behind her, Black pulled a small silver hairbrush from her gem and began to run it through Coco’s unmanaged curls. This was not new, either.

“Tangled again,” Black murmured. “I was only gone for a rotation.”

“That’s more than enough time to muss up my hair,” Coco shrugged.

“Well, if only you wore a headscarf.”

“If only I wasn’t a runt.”

“Coco, no.”

“Well, it’s true. It’s not about status. Even the cubic zirconia have headscarves, but they’re not runts, they’re just naturally small. The only reason I don’t have a scarf, or a monocle for that matter, is because the other zircons want to humiliate me.”

“And what happens if you do wear one?” asked Black. “Who are they going to report you to?”

Coco was quiet for a second, then said meekly, “Probably you.”

“Because I actually read my messages, unlike Matura. For the sake of rules, I’ll forward the reports to her and then, after she inevitably fails to reply in fifteen rotations, I will assume administrative authority and dismiss the report on basis of irrelevance. You get your headscarf and those whiny circuit zircons get ignored. Everyone wins.”

Coco sighed and hung her head. “It’s not worth it though.”

Abruptly, Black put the hairbrush down. “Why not?”

“You’re really not that smart, are you?” said Coco, turning to meet Black’s eyes. “You were just stressing about how I’m being treated, and now you’re suggesting something that would make it worse.”

“But they’re belittling you! If I give you permission to wear a scarf, that’s a little less belittling that they have the power to do — ”

“It’s not about the scarf, Black.” Coco sighed and sank back down, resting her cheek on Black’s chest, feeling her velvety coat and silken cravat. “It’s about — oh, you could never understand. But when, when I go out there, I feel as if I’m balancing on a stretched wire, high above the floor. If I move forward too fast, I fall. If I lean back, I fall too. The safest thing to do is to just stand in one place without moving.”

Black fell quiet, so Coco went on.

“If I try to make my own decisions, or if I report the way they treat me, the abuse just gets worse. That’s what you saw with me and Orange. If I just took it, she’d eventually just burn herself out. But now that you stepped in on my behalf, I...I’m actually kind of worried that she’ll be meaner when you’re not here.”

“Coco…”

“I mean, I’m glad that you showed up! But…it’s hard. When you leave again. I just wish I could follow you around everywhere. Then the other zircons wouldn’t...you know.”

Black was speechless. When she exhaled, it was shaky, uneven, and Coco could feel it against her cheek. “Oh, Coco, I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“Don’t be,” said Coco. “Please. You can’t snap your fingers and make it all go away, I don’t want you to feel like you should.”

“But — am I causing it?” asked Black, her voice small. For a moment she was the vulnerable one; she was the flawed gemling and Coco was the one who had seen it all. Outside of this room, there was never any doubt which one of them was the ringleader. But here, in each other’s arms, it was suddenly not as clear. Coco hesitated.

“I don’t...I don’t know,” she confessed. “Not on purpose.”

“But it’s still happening,” Black finished.

Coco shifted, resting her head on Black’s shoulder. Then she nodded. “I think it’s just…the entire balance of favoritism. Don’t get me wrong, you’re doing a wonderful job at acting as if you hate me!”

“Thank you, I suppose.”

“But you have to take it further. I think — the other zircons can see past the surface level insults. What they see is you stepping in to defend me anyway, even though you SAY you see me as a worthless pebble. They see whenever you ask me to help you on cases, which is turning out to be much more often nowadays, rather than just some random cubic zirconia, and something clicks for them and they think, ‘Something’s not right’. And — I really hope nobody suspects what’s actually going on, but, well, to some extent, they do know. That my special treatment only comes when you’re around.”

Black’s expression was pained. “You’re asking me to abuse you, too.”

“Well, that’s jumping to conclusions, just…well…yes. At least don’t react so much when it happens. But if it comes to it…”

“No,” said Black. “I can’t do that.”

Coco sat up, pulling away. “But there’s no other option,” she replied. “Either you keep in character, or it gets worse. Maybe we’ll even get found out.”

Black bit the inside of her lip. “Until?”

“Until what?”

“That’s what I’m asking. How long do you want to keep this up? How much abuse do you plan to take?”

“I — I don’t know!” They were both standing now. Coco paced. Black’s hands were clasped tightly behind her back.

“Eternally?” asked Black. “Until they drive you too far? Until I turn a corner and find you with a stake in your gem because nobody bothered to speak up for you?”

“You’re overreacting.”

“I will keep in character enough to seem as if I dislike you. But I cannot stand by and watch you suffer.”

“So — do you want me to suffer more when you leave? And maybe risk someone finding out about us? Because that’s what’ll happen!”

“I KNOW, but I don’t want that either — ”

“We don’t have the liberty to be picky. I can take it! At least we need to try!”

“Coco, I just want you to be happy!”

“ _Then why won’t you let me do this for you?!”_

Her voice echoed. Unbridled, two tears slipped down her cheek. When Coco blinked and looked at Black Zircon again, a small, scared part of her expected to meet anger. But it was just more pain. A single, pearly tear beaded in Black’s eye — even Coco had never seen her cry.

“I mean — ” It was pointless. All of the anger, all of the frustration she felt with Black and the other zircons and herself and Homeworld, even, had already spent its first burst of force. Now it leaked. It dripped. Hastily, Coco wiped her tears with the sleeve of her jacket. “I…I’m sorry for yelling at you; I — ”

She had had nothing to say. Which was alright. Black stepped forward, knelt, and hugged her tightly, and not for the first time, Coco cried into the draping folds of her headscarf. But this time, she felt something new. Black began to cry with her. Her shoulders shook and the tears soaked through Coco’s thin jacket; they gripped each other like Homeworld was falling apart.

“Don’t apologize,” Black said shakily. “Please.”

Another apology rose to Coco’s lips, but she pushed it back down. “I don’t know what to do,” she said, her voice muffled by Black’s scarf. “I’m scared.”

“So am I,” whispered Black.

“I don’t want to lose this. I don’t want to lose you.”

“I don’t want to see you in pain.”

“But we’re so close, Black. Sometimes I can almost feel it, that someone is going to find out about what we do…”

“Or that they’ll punish you for receiving special treatment from me.”

“It’s the best option we have.”

“It doesn’t have to be. We can figure something else out. We just need time.”

“We don’t HAVE time.”

Black fell silent. They both knew that Coco was right. With every day that passed, every off-duty session where Black called Coco in to her office, every time Black’s voice faltered, every occasion when Coco’s gaze strayed, someone could put the pieces together. Or if not, someone like Orange Zircon might go too far, and do something irreparable to Coco. They grew closer to that moment with every passing hour.

They were quiet and they whispered only soft, substanceless comforts as they climbed back onto the couch, meeting in a few rare, precious kisses. Coco rested her head on Black’s chest and Black ran one hand through her pale curls, the other hand brushing the crooked gemstone on Coco’s right hip.

And Coco, fatigued from fear and relief all at once, fell asleep.

When she awoke again, she was alone on the couch, covered by a silken blanket. The blanket was real fabric, an old gift from Blue Diamond from when Black served in her court. Rubbing her eyes, Coco pushed the blanket away, sat up, and looked around the room.

Black sat at her desk a few paces away, a screen open in front of her. When Coco’s feet padded against the floor, she turned. A light shone in her eyes.

“What if,” said Black, “we suddenly had a third option?”

* * *

 

Black Zircon strode out of her office and into the Common, Cocoa Brown Zircon jogging in her wake. But it was a dignified jog — she held her head high, proudly displaying a loose, cream-colored headscarf.

Suffice to say, everyone was staring. There were not as many zircons gathered in the Common as before, but a good half of the dozen had been witness to the earlier almost-disaster. A fraction of those had hung back to eavesdrop on Coco and Black, and had watched them go into Black’s office together. All had thought that Coco would emerge disgraced, dejected, perhaps with the evidence of tear stains on her cheeks. Every one of them was shocked to see the scarf and the smile ghosting over Coco’s lips. Startled, some of them stood up in a salute; others just gaped with their mouths open wide. Coco’s eyes met Starlite Blue Zircon’s, the one who had come to her defense earlier but backed away. Clearly, she was just as bewildered.

“7EA,” said Black Zircon, turning to Blue. Blue stood up straight, her eyes wide.

“Yes?”

“Is 8OJ out?”

Blue’s gaze flicked back to Coco for a millisecond. “Er...yes. She just left for a preliminary hearing.”

Black’s lips tightened together, and though her eyes were hidden behind her newly reformed visor, Coco knew there was disappointment there. “Hmm. Well, can you deliver her a message from me?”

“I — can pass it on.”

“Tell her that I am taking an extended ten-year assignment on Clavius 7, and that she is not to terrorize our paralegals even in my absence. However, it should relieve her to know that the defective cocoa brown zircon has been assigned to disciplinary probation, and that she is coming with me for testing. If I do not observe a superior quality of work, then she will be severely punished for sabotage of 8OJ’s case.”

Blue Zircon had been typing the message furiously into one of her screens until that point, when she grimaced. “I’m sorry,” she interjected, “but, well, I don’t know if anyone mentioned this, but Cocoa Brown didn’t really do anything wrong! You see, Orange was supposed to — ”

“I hope you understand,” snapped Black Zircon, “that I know this.”

“Oh...okay.”

“Just tell 8OJ whatever will make her shut up. But the off-color is coming with me for assessment. This was an order.”

Sharply, Black turned to regard the rest of the room. Everyone had been staring, but just then decided to examine the floor and walls with captivated interest.

“Also,” said Black, turning back to Starlite Blue, “I nominated you to the panel and happened to be the tiebreaker vote. I hope you do not mind being promoted to Blue Diamond’s high court zircon.”

Coco had been watching Blue’s face as Black spoke and was pleased to witness it phase through four distinct emotions: fear, confusion, realization, and shock. Blue’s eyes went as wide as activator panels. Then, promptly, she fell over in a dead faint.

Black Zircon leaned over and looked down at Blue. “Hmm. I suppose that means she accepts.”

Coco suppressed a smile. “Someone else pick her up,” Black said to the room, and then to Coco, “And you, come along, before you make us late.” The acid in the words was still scalding. But there was something comforting about that, because they both knew they weren’t late; Black Zircon could do whatever she wanted and no one would question it. She could request to bring a defective runt on a confidential assignment, calling her own wish an order. She could allow said runt to wear a headscarf just like her own, under the guise of being official and proper. She could show up ten minutes late to the Galaxy Warp because she and the runt had spent too much time kissing in her private office. And no one would tell her differently.

Coco had to almost jump to follow Black’s long strides up to the warp pad, and her knees shook. The only times she ever stepped foot on the warp pad was to clean it. But now, here she was. Standing above the common, just behind the beautiful, mythical Black Zircon. The Black Zircon whose gem was weathered from seeing too much, softened from feeling too much. The Black Zircon whose hands, clasped behind her back and just underneath the gem, were trembling. The Black Zircon who looked down at her with nothing on her face, but whose visor flashed transparent and allowed Coco a second’s glance to meet her gentle gaze.

They warped away. And for the few, precious seconds that they flew through warp-space, their hands found each other’s.


End file.
